NBA Finals: Milwaukee Bucks vs. Phoenix Suns, Part 2 | Series tied at 2

[pj0tr]

Over 4 games Giannis has had 55 free throw attempts to his 75 shots attempted…

But yeah Booker is the one getting all the foul calls

In fairess, fouling the crap out of Giannis seems to be the primary defensive strategy on him for the Suns.

The one thing the Suns did do tonight is figure out how to slow Giannis down.

Question will be is if the Suns are right mentally on Saturday.

If they are, they could certainly still win this series, most likely in 7.

But my guess is the Suns lost the series tonight. Mentally they are finished.

[soxperry]

All the momentum is with the Bucks right now, not because they won this game but because of how they won this game. Suns were the team that looked like deer in the headlights there.

If I had to bet one a team right now, it would be the Bucks. I felt like the Bucks left PHX with belief that they could win this series. I don't feel that with the Suns. This is giving me the same vibes as when the Raptors backdoor swept the Bucks in 2019.

While im tempted to see that similarity, if the bucks had a microwave scorer like Booker or a distributor like Paul, that series doesnt make it far. Giannis had no idea what to do with the wall and no one else could step up offensively. We got totally exposed, but it was a very important lesson for Giannis (and Bud) that is now paying dividends.

Still, i do think we have the momentum.

[Mr Puddles]

I tried warning all of you Phoenix Suns fans but you didn't want to listen to me. All you wanted to do was mock and attack me. Joke is now on you guys.

Phoenix is done. Stick a fork in them.

Milwaukee now has all the confidence and momentum in the world (in comparison to Phoenix who is mentally done for).

Milwaukee in 6 4-2 and Bucks will CELEBRATE in MILWAUKEE.

Agreed. I know when I see young teams fold mentally. The Suns are done.

The Suns never did anything special to begin with. All they did was protect home court advantage. Which is what they were supposed to do. Knicks fans on my NY forum were frustrating me pretending as if the Series was "over" as if they never watched my Knicks of the 90's during Playoff wars.

Not only are the Suns done mentally but Milwaukee just stole all momentum and will head into Phoenix fired up and on a mission to destroy. Suns won't be able to match their intensity, will come out flat and be down @ the half by 15+ and then it's game. Set. Match.

I want this series to go 7. It's already been a classic. 7 games would make it legendary but unfortunately it's over in 6. The Greek Freak and Middleton are on a different level and CP3 is pretty much finished.

Chris Paul was great in game 1 but @ 36 this series has already taken a toll on him he looked awful and slow tonight and the pressure of ending up like Melo with no rings and not his friends Wade/LeBron is mentally playing tricks on him.

Lmao, so the suns win the first two games on their home court and "all they did was protect their home court", then the Bucks win the next two on their home court and "the Suns are done mentally ".

Seems like a perfectly objective take.

[HMFFL]

Win or lose the series, I think the Bucks will finally start getting some due respect now. And they'd be even better with DiVincenzo playing.

I believe they're receiving more respect now but if they lose the respect will end. The headlines will resurface that Ginannis cannot win a finals and that the Bucks window is closing. This is the year to win it and they have the best player in the Finals but the way Phoenix shoots at times is what can separate them quickly.

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[soxperry]

But yeah Booker is the one getting all the foul calls

In fairess, fouling the crap out of Giannis seems to be the primary defensive strategy on him for the Suns.

The one thing the Suns did do tonight is figure out how to slow Giannis down.

Question will be is if the Suns are right mentally on Saturday.

If they are, they could certainly still win this series, most likely in 7.

But my guess is the Suns lost the series tonight. Mentally they are finished.

Giannis didnt have it tonight on offense. He was passive out of the gates. He just ddint seem normal. Wouldnt be surprised if it came out that he was sick. Even when he did have the ball, he looked sluggish. Im just saying i dont think the suns have figured anything out. He was still very efficient.

[Phystic]

Plucky underdogs who don't flop for fouls. A real basketball fan should love that.

They only absurd flop was the connaughton foul on Crowder. Otherwise crowder was hit in the face eat time. And tucker did hit the hand, can dispute if it was a foul but there is contact.

The term flop gets overused.

Dude, Crowder touched a completely different part of his face (his eyes) than where he got hit--TWICE. All the dude does is act.

He was hit twice across the face, yes?

[Pachinko_]

Man, Suns are a super tough team. I thought they'd completely fold this game but nah, taking it to the wire. Stubborn, resilient team.

[gorz]

All the momentum is with the Bucks right now, not because they won this game but because of how they won this game. Suns were the team that looked like deer in the headlights there.

If I had to bet one a team right now, it would be the Bucks. I felt like the Bucks left PHX with belief that they could win this series. I don't feel that with the Suns. This is giving me the same vibes as when the Raptors backdoor swept the Bucks in 2019.

Terrible comparison. For one, the Raptors were actually leading the majority of the game in game 1 against the Bucks (a game which they lost) whereas in game 1 Phoenix led pretty much the entire game and won the game. Two, in game 4 the Raptors led the game the vast majority and won that game. In game 4 here Phoenix led the vast majority of the time and lost in the last few minutes of the game. The only similarity is that the series are tied at 2 a piece after 4 games. But i don't know how anyone can feel confident in Milwaukee after how bad they looked in the first two games at Phoenix and for the majority of game 4 as well.

All this momentum talk is bull crap. Phoenix is the better team of the two and they will win this series.

[FreeThrowLine]

That was the first game this series that I thought the refs were horrendous on both ends.

The Booker 6th foul and Giannis not clearing baseline to inbounds will surely dominate the ref talk for this game, but before either of those plays I thought the Bucks were getting the short end of the stick.

Having said that, the Bucks really weren't doing themselves any favours, the continually shoot themselves in the foot with indecisiveness on offense and some complete breakdowns on defense.

On defense, just off the top of my head there was the Paul drive to the basket with no one near him, the wide open 3 for Crowder, wide open jumper for Payne and lob for Ayton that were examples of some of the worst defensive reactions I've seen in an NBA finals.

On offense there's no structure, guys are half heartedly pump faking shots that they should be taking and it's so unconvincing to the defense that they don't get any advantage of it when they put the ball on the floor and/or they're taking such poor care of the ball as they drive it into the paint off that pump fake and they have no clue what they're doing. I'm shocked to see the Bucks had just 5 turnovers, that has to be a mistake right? It felt like they had 3 times that many watching the game, maybe just a lot of bad passes or loose balls that they recovered

Giannis should be forbidden from taking 3's, Tucker has been completely useless, Holiday might have money on the Suns, he had a couple of big defensive plays at the end of the game, but if he doesn't miss so many layups/easy baskets the Bucks are likely up double digits anyway

Tucker/Holiday and Portis combined to go 5/27...your role players are supposed to play better at home, they better bring their A game in Phoenix.

I think after this series is over we're going to find out Giannis has something up, because he looks way too tired out there. Did he previously get Covid?

For the Suns, Paul chose a bad time to disappear & while Booker was huge it seemed to leave the rest of the Suns players doing way too much standing around watching. Bridges and Johnson combine to go 7-11, they needed to be more involved. Ayton was huge on the boards but MIA on offense, I think he'll play better back home.

I did say after game 3 that I felt the winner of game 4 would go ahead to win the series and I'm sticking with that, but honestly neither team has looked great, it's possible they're both dealing with fatigue having never gone this far into the playoffs, or the rest between games was too long

You have to see the difference here. Booker mugged Jrue on a layup. It looked intentional. Giannis had one foot inbounds on an inbound pass. While it technically could be called, it gives the bucks 0 advantage. It had no positive or negative outcome on the game. Booker mugging Jrue on a layup had a negative outcome for the Bucks. It's not super complicated.

OK, why are you quoting my post though?

[ejn1214]

That was the first game this series that I thought the refs were horrendous on both ends.

The Booker 6th foul and Giannis not clearing baseline to inbounds will surely dominate the ref talk for this game, but before either of those plays I thought the Bucks were getting the short end of the stick.

Having said that, the Bucks really weren't doing themselves any favours, the continually shoot themselves in the foot with indecisiveness on offense and some complete breakdowns on defense.

On defense, just off the top of my head there was the Paul drive to the basket with no one near him, the wide open 3 for Crowder, wide open jumper for Payne and lob for Ayton that were examples of some of the worst defensive reactions I've seen in an NBA finals.

On offense there's no structure, guys are half heartedly pump faking shots that they should be taking and it's so unconvincing to the defense that they don't get any advantage of it when they put the ball on the floor and/or they're taking such poor care of the ball as they drive it into the paint off that pump fake and they have no clue what they're doing. I'm shocked to see the Bucks had just 5 turnovers, that has to be a mistake right? It felt like they had 3 times that many watching the game, maybe just a lot of bad passes or loose balls that they recovered

Giannis should be forbidden from taking 3's, Tucker has been completely useless, Holiday might have money on the Suns, he had a couple of big defensive plays at the end of the game, but if he doesn't miss so many layups/easy baskets the Bucks are likely up double digits anyway

Tucker/Holiday and Portis combined to go 5/27...your role players are supposed to play better at home, they better bring their A game in Phoenix.

I think after this series is over we're going to find out Giannis has something up, because he looks way too tired out there. Did he previously get Covid?

For the Suns, Paul chose a bad time to disappear & while Booker was huge it seemed to leave the rest of the Suns players doing way too much standing around watching. Bridges and Johnson combine to go 7-11, they needed to be more involved. Ayton was huge on the boards but MIA on offense, I think he'll play better back home.

I did say after game 3 that I felt the winner of game 4 would go ahead to win the series and I'm sticking with that, but honestly neither team has looked great, it's possible they're both dealing with fatigue having never gone this far into the playoffs, or the rest between games was too long

You have to see the difference here. Booker mugged Jrue on a layup. It looked intentional. Giannis had one foot inbounds on an inbound pass. While it technically could be called, it gives the bucks 0 advantage. It had no positive or negative outcome on the game. Booker mugging Jrue on a layup had a negative outcome for the Bucks. It's not super complicated.

OK, why are you quoting my post though?

The Booker 6th foul and Giannis not clearing baseline to inbounds will surely dominate the ref talk for this game, but before either of those plays I thought the Bucks were getting the short end of the stick.

Lol. You write a book and forget what you wrote?

[falcolombardi]

Win or lose the series, I think the Bucks will finally start getting some due respect now. And they'd be even better with DiVincenzo playing.

I believe they're receiving more respect now but if they lose the respect will end. The headlines will resurface that Ginannis cannot win a finals and that the Bucks window is closing. This is the year to win it and they have the best player in the Finals but the way Phoenix shoots at times is what can separate them quickly.

Sent from my SM-N975U using RealGM mobile app

is weird because if you look at regular season bucks amd suns dont have such a wide difference in percentages, they are roughly the same in fact (somethimgh like 39 vs 38%)

but in playoffs bucks are shooting like 32% and suns feel like they shoot 45 or somethingh absurd every game

bucks has the series tied in Spite of shooting, if there is some sort of return to the mean and suns have a cold streak or bucks a hot streak of shooting to end the finals ....that probably ends the suns

but bucks have been so bad all postseason long thay i think is not only luck, it seems more likely their offense is not generating good looks in rythim as often in a play off environment

[Packbuckman]

Over 4 games Giannis has had 55 free throw attempts to his 75 shots attempted…

But yeah Booker is the one getting all the foul calls

Giannis is attacking the basket Booker is shooting jumpers compare him to Middleton instead where Booker is shooting way more free throws than Middleton.

[falcolombardi]

All the momentum is with the Bucks right now, not because they won this game but because of how they won this game. Suns were the team that looked like deer in the headlights there.

If I had to bet one a team right now, it would be the Bucks. I felt like the Bucks left PHX with belief that they could win this series. I don't feel that with the Suns. This is giving me the same vibes as when the Raptors backdoor swept the Bucks in 2019.

Terrible comparison. For one, the Raptors were actually leading the majority of the game in game 1 against the Bucks (a game which they lost) whereas in game 1 Phoenix led pretty much the entire game and won the game. Two, in game 4 the Raptors led the game the vast majority and won that game. In game 4 here Phoenix led the vast majority of the time and lost in the last few minutes of the game. The only similarity is that the series are tied at 2 a piece after 4 games. But i don't know how anyone can feel confident in Milwaukee after how bad they looked in the first two games at Phoenix and for the majority of game 4 as well.

All this momentum talk is bull crap. Phoenix is the better team of the two and they will win this series.

suns shot 20/40 in game 2 from 3 poitn land, they have not dominated THAT much at home. their timely supernova shooting night kinda saved them from going to milwaukee 1-1

so i would say both teams have got lucky breaks

hell, the point diferencial of the series is like half a point, it has been that close overall

[-Sammy-]

Pick it up here.